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Wreaking Havoc A Year in an A-20 by Joseph W Rutter
Wreaking Havoc A Year in an A-20 by Joseph W Rutter
Hard Cover w/ dust jacket
258 pages
Copyright 2004
CONTENTS
List of llustrationsix
List of Mapsxi
Prefacexiii
Overseas Flight Log, 1944-45xv
Prologue3
1. War! My World Changed, but Slowly8
2. I Become an Officer and a Gentleman19
3. To Morris Field and the A-2031
4. Across the Broad Pacific58
5. At Home in the 389th Squadron73
6. Just About Enough Excitement92
7. Marking Time112
8. The Philippines and Serious Business 133
9. Leyte Is Wet in January158
10. Mindoro and on to Luzon177
11. Incidents at Mangaldan199
12. Winding Down216
13. Homeward Bound228
Epilogue243
Index251
ILLUSTRATIONS
Aviation Cadet Joseph Rutter, April, 1943 20
Second Lieutenant Rutter on leave in Massachusetts, January, 1944 27
Flight line of the 53d Squadron, 46th Bomb Group, Morris Field, Charlotte, North Carolina 35
Cockpit of an A-20 38
Interior of A-2oG at U.S. Air Force Museum 39
The Rutter crew comes together at Charlotte, North Carolina 43
Shortly after arrival at the 268th Replacement Company, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea 67
The 312th Bomb Group's base at Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea 78
"Officers' country" at the 312th's camp at Hollandia 82
V-mail letter from J. R. McMaster 99
Lieutenant Grant Peterson of Colorado, my tent mate at Hollandia 101
Lieutenant Maurice Owen poses on an A-20 104
Maury Owen seated in an A-20 cockpit 105
Formal inspection of the 389th Squadron before moving to the Philippines 118
January 7, 1945, mission to Clark Field 154
Sugar 958 climbs to avoid strafing B-25s on January 7, 1945 155
Two B-25s pass beneath Sugar 958 on January 7, 1945 156
A B-25 sticks to business as Sugar 958 turns above wrecked Clark Field hangars 157
The 312th Bomb Group's camp at Mangaldan Field, Luzon, February, 1945 183
Village church at Dagupan, Luzon, near Mangaldan Field 184
A Filipino "transporter" near our airfield at Mangaldan 184
Water buffalo team powering the crusher at a farmer's sugar mill near Mangaldan 185
Sugar 958 on the flight line at Mangaldan Field 191
The remains of Maury Owen's Sugar 957 201
Crew chiefs of the 389th Squadron 207
Crew chiefs work on the right engine of a 389th Squadron A-20 208
Lieutenant Rutter and crew after a March, 1945, mission 217
The Tarlac, Luzon, railway station in April, 1945 229
The remains of the State Theater in downtown Manila, April, 1945 230
The gutted Metropolitan Theater in Manila 231
The remains of Manila's general post office 232
The entrance to Intramuros, Manila's inner city 233
Nose art on Jim Rutledge's A-2o "Ravin' Rachael" 236
MAPS
Western New Guinea 71
Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea, September, 1944 72
The Philippines 132
Western Luzon 140
DUST JACKET INTRODUCTION
Life writes Joseph W. Rutter, "was all fun and games with very expensive toys during those bright June days in 1944." Rutter was a pilot in the Army Air Force, and the expensive toys were airplanesA-20s, nicknamed "the Havoc" for the damage they inflicted. He had just completed replacement crew training at Charlotte, North Carolina; shortly thereafter he was flying with the 312th Bomb Group from Hollandia, New Guinea, over Japanese targets and across "unexplored" areas, and life became more serious.
Wreaking Havoc: A Year in an A-20 tells the story of Rutter and his friends at a time when the horrors of war were matched by the energy and enthusiasm of youth. In innocent and understated tones, Rutter relates hijinks and daredevilry, his training stateside, his first mission, large-scale raids on the Philippines and Formosa, routine low-level attacks on Japanese positions, crashes, mishaps, and the deaths of friends. With a wonderful eye for detail, Rutter gives the reader a glimpse into not only the air war in the Pacific but also the culture of the 194os and the minds of the young men who found themselves far from home on the front lines.
In Rutter's story of war, the A-20 is as much a protagonist as the author. If the aircraft emerges as a pilot's planea joy to flyit could also be a temperamental machine whose landing gear might collapse, whose hydraulic system might fail, and whose controls might suddenly malfunction. Rutter and the men who crewed the planes are quiet heroes whose approach to war combines the nonchalance of youth and the seriousness of men who have come close enough to death to take life seriously.
From the pages of his memoir, Rutter speaks to those interested in aviation, World War II, and the coming of age of a young man.
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